Know someone who is thinking of starting a small business? Encourage them to attend the Small Business & Entrepreneurial Connections Forum at Owensboro Community & Technical College on 12 August. The event is free and includes lunch. The event will start at 9 am and run until 3 pm.
NWKF takes Small Business seriously. Anytime someone is interested in starting or expanding a small business, they can contact Sue Gibbens in our office for free counseling and access to financing.
To register for the event, please click here.
The Northwest Kentucky Forward Annual Report for FY 09–10 (year ending 30 June 2010) is now available. Among the highlights are the following:
- Major Reinvestment at Rio Tinto Alcan;
- Location of software developer IWT;
- 150 project leads
- 22 active projects
- 100% visitation of all qualified existing businesses
- 9 expansions
- $2 million for training
- 35 Jumpstart and Micro-loans
- 42 new business start-ups
- Next Rally4Education scheduled for 6 November.
The Tri State’s lead economic development organizations (LEDOs) hosted the Regional Doing Summit last week at the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center. The event brought Tri State community leaders together to design new and improved economic development networks to support each region. Nearly 40 people were in attendance including Mayors, Chamber of Commerce Professionals, University Presidents, etc.
The Summit was conducted by Purdue University’s Regional Economic Development Advisor, Ed Morrison. Mr. Morrison had the attendees select a round table discussion, topics ranging from logistics and infrastructure to talent and innovation. Each group focused on a strategic plan relating to their round table topic. The following questions were conversed: 1) What could we do as a Tri State project 2) What are assets and opportunities people bring to the table 3) Define an opportunity and characteristics of the outcome 4) Define the topic project with milestones and create a 30 Day Action Plan.
The Summit was the initial step of what is to come in the future. At this moment, each group has set a prospective meeting date to discuss on-going plans.
Community Ventures Corp, the entrepreneurship partner of Northwest Kentucky Forward, has recently been awarded an additional $750,000 for its microloan pools. This award includes funding for the Northwest Kentucky Microloan Fund.
CVC provides entrepreneurial counseling, assistance, and loan funds to help individuals start businesses in Northwest Kentucky and in offices throughout the state. CVC has been a national leader in both microlending, SBA 504s, and New Market Tax Credits.
Northwest Kentucky Forward’s entrepreneurship effort, a partnership with Community Ventures Corporation, has literally helped hundreds of people considering starting a small business in the last two years. This week, the program helped a new manufacturer launch with the closing of a loan to assist their start-up.
Wood Creations, Inc, based in Livermore, KY, received counseling services from Sue Gibbens, CVC’s point person in the NWKF office. Sue helped the company put together their business plan and then helped them secure a loan through the regional Microenterprise Loan Fund.
To learn more about this success story and the opportunity to bring jobs to McLean County, click here.
In the last fiscal year (1 July 08–30 June 09) NWKF’s entrepreneurship effort met with 198 entrepreneurs!! While some of these were existing entrepreneurs, many were would be business owners. These clients produced the following results during the fiscal year:
v 198 Clients
v 16 micro loans
v 3 jump start loans
v 35 new start up businesses
v 75 new jobs created through counseling and loans
v 17 retention jobs through counseling and loans
Find out more about NWKF helps entrepreneurs and contact us today —results@northwestky.com.
Through our partnership with Community Ventures Corporation, businesses and banks in our region have the opportunity to take advantage of the 504 loan program.
This SBA-backed loan lets banks loan 50% of a project, CVC will loan 40% at fixed rates (usually below market), and the owner injects 10%.
While the traditional cap on the CVC portion is 40% or $1.5 million for some projects (like manufacturing) the cap increases substantially. Also, for the remainder of the year the Federal stimulus bill eliminates all fees!
For more information, check out www.504kentucky.com.
NWKF operates (through our great partnership with Community Ventures Corporation) the Northwest Kentucky Microentreprise Fund. Entrepreneurs and small businesses can access micro loans ($35,000 or less) to help start or expand a small business.
These funds are not meant to compete with banks but to supplement entrepreneurs who have a great idea but are not ready for bank financing.
Last year, CVC (which just serves Kentucky) made nearly 20% of the SBA-funded Microentreprise loans in the nation with the number of loans made in Henderson only trailing those made in Louisville and Lexington!
In the first quarter of 2009, NWKF’s entrepreneurship program has been extremely busy! In the first quarter alone, the program has
- met with more than 35 new clients,
- approved 3 Jump Start Loans,
- approved 5 Northwest Kentucky Microloans,
- has 4 more microloans pending, and
- has 5 more loan applications pending.
The goal of NWKF’s Business Development program is to help would-be entrepreneurs create new businesses and assist existing small business owners grow and expand.
The program provides free counseling assistance and provides access to several loan programs.